In the first century of the Common Era, two new belief systems entered long-established cultures with radically different outlooks and values: in that century, missionaries started to spread the ...
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In the first century of the Common Era, two new belief systems entered long-established cultures with radically different outlooks and values: in that century, missionaries started to spread the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth in the Roman empire and the Buddha in China. Both were not only ancient cultures but also cultures whose elites felt no particular urgency to adopt a new religion. Yet a few centuries later, the two new faiths had become so well established that their names were virtually synonymous with the polities they had entered as strangers. This book brings together specialists in the history and religion of Rome and China with a twofold aim. First, it wishes to explore in detail some of the similarities and differences in the processes by which each religion merged into its new cultural environment. Second, by juxtaposing the two cases, it aims to reveal aspects of these processes that are often overlooked when studying the history of just the one or the other. The approach of this volume is thematic as well as comparative. It provides a series of essays focusing on key questions and specific aspects of the very complex, multifaceted processes of accommodation, assimilation, and contestation that played out in each society. The chapters also showcase methods from different disciplines including history, philology, economic history, and religious studies.Less

Published in print: 2017-07-27

In the first century of the Common Era, two new belief systems entered long-established cultures with radically different outlooks and values: in that century, missionaries started to spread the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth in the Roman empire and the Buddha in China. Both were not only ancient cultures but also cultures whose elites felt no particular urgency to adopt a new religion. Yet a few centuries later, the two new faiths had become so well established that their names were virtually synonymous with the polities they had entered as strangers. This book brings together specialists in the history and religion of Rome and China with a twofold aim. First, it wishes to explore in detail some of the similarities and differences in the processes by which each religion merged into its new cultural environment. Second, by juxtaposing the two cases, it aims to reveal aspects of these processes that are often overlooked when studying the history of just the one or the other. The approach of this volume is thematic as well as comparative. It provides a series of essays focusing on key questions and specific aspects of the very complex, multifaceted processes of accommodation, assimilation, and contestation that played out in each society. The chapters also showcase methods from different disciplines including history, philology, economic history, and religious studies.